Red Bull are closing the gap

Quadruple Formula One World Champion Sebastian Vettel believes that Red Bull Racing are closing the gap to Mercedes.

For the second race running, Red Bull Racing had a driver standing on the podium at the end of the race weekend.

In Australia it was Daniel Ricciardo in second place, however he was subsequently disqualified and in Malaysia it was Vettel, finishing in third position behind the one-two finish of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg for Mercedes.

The performance gap between Mercedes and Red Bull Racing was still vast in Malaysia, with Vettel finishing 25 seconds behind the leader. With Hamilton controlling the pace at the front without really pushing the Mercedes to its full potential.

But whilst the Red Bull has some way to go to replicate its all dominating performance of the back end of 2013, the German driver is confident that his team are closing the gap and quicker than expected.

‘It has been very positive what we have done since then [testing], a massive job from the team, massive job from Renault – both pushing really flat out – but there is still a long way to go,’ Vettel told Sky Sports.

‘We can see that the others, especially these guys [Mercedes] are quite a bit ahead, a little bit quicker than us and always have enough in hand to respond, so it is up to us how quick we manage to come back, but for sure it is not easy when you start on the back foot. At the moment, though, it looks like we are making bigger steps than them and let’s hope it continues like that.

‘One and a half months ago we were far away from doing ten laps in a row and today we finished the race on one of the most critical races of the year in terms of temperature and stress to the car, so we are very happy on that front.

‘These guys [Mercedes] have done a very good job and they completely deserve to be where they are now. We are a strong team and you can see that by the pace and results we had at the first two grands prix, so from my point of view it is a question of time.’